Cafe-bistro Trend Offers Simple Entrees And Brisk Service

The couple lives in Lincoln Park, the western part. They are young and they dined at Jovan last weekend. Both have intense jobs, or at least claim to. Both read ``Gourmet`` magazine, but have been forced to admit they can`t cook a lick. Tonight, say Tuesday, they are working late. They get home and need a place to eat. And it has to be quick, or else there will be pressure on their marriage.

Then there is our restaurateur. He, too, is young and attractive. He is a proponent of nouvelle cuisine--learned in a classic setting in France. He has a successful formal restaurant elsewhere in the city. Business there is good, so good, in fact, that he has discovered that there is a limit: Even affluent Chicagoans can`t eat a five-course dinner every night.

Enter the cafe-bistro, a casual but lovable little place where the tables are snug, the room just a tad loud, the dining light and the prices still on the planet Earth. It is just what our fast-moving couple ordered. Blue jeans and a 5 o`clock shadow are acceptable. It`s a place where you can have a glass of wine and a single dish.

And for the restaurateur? Well, look at the menu. Shrimp and tuna brochette with a teriyaki marinade. Chicken breast with arugula sauce. These are not $20 entrees, but they do cost more than $10. Wines, served by the glass, go for $3 or more. All this is low key, but not, in the end, low ticket.

Everyone is happy. But does the story seem too ideal?

Not really. One could argue that a variety of places are following this formula quite precisely. True, little restaurants with light dishes and brisk service are nothing particlarly new. It is true, too, that the appellation

``cafe`` can mean anything from high style to dive city.

But restaurant seekers are intrepid at identifying the most obvious trends. To wit: Cafe d`Artagnan, 2242 N. Lincoln Ave.; Foley`s First Street, 1732 N. Halsted St.; and Albert`s Cafe, 52 W. Elm St., are three recently opened places where the cafe-bistro idea is beating the odds in a restaurant market that is frankly overbooked with adequate new restaurants. (By the way, the word ``bistro,`` as some places call themselves, simply reinforces the idea that these places are informal, but in a careful, French manner.)

They are stylized. They have exotic appetizers, light and simple entrees, a sprinkling of cheap items and pricey wines by the glass. The service is brisk, and you are allowed to linger within the bounds of politesse. Of course, some of what is a trend here is a staple in Europe; so it is not hard for these spots to throw in a bit of foreign accent and provide diners with a real life, three-dimensional Viennese or Parisian fantasy.

``Basically, we are a neighborhood spot for Europeans and a lot of well-traveled Americans,`` says Peter Salchow, owner of Bigg`s and the new Albert`s Cafe and Pastry Shop next door. Albert`s is modeled after a Viennese konditori, where a luscious array of pastries are displayed in cases that are pressed up close to small tables. People can read over coffee and can order wine and plates of simple fare, like smoked salmon and capers ($5.95), pepper steak ($8.25) or a fricasee of chicken in a puff pastry ($4.95).

Many things motivated this small project for Salchow. For one thing, it enabled him to bring his brother-in-law, Albert Wolf, to this country from Munich, Germany, where he was the patissiere at a large hotel. It is a small restaurant, only about 30 seats. He wants to ``educate`` more casual diners to exotic dishes (like hummos from North Africa, a thick, chick pea dip with pita bread).

He also wants to keep his Bigg`s diners in his stable. He admits that there are nights, howver rare, when his clientele may not want to dine in what is billed as ``Chicago`s most romantic`` restaurant. ``As much as we try to control it, we are not always in the same mood,`` he says.

Such places indicate that Chicago diners are more exacting, demanding a bit of haute cuisine even on their casual nights. These new restaurants also point to the maturity of the new restaurateurs, who are comfortable enough

--both artistically and financially--with their principal restaurants that they can now do something with a lighter touch. Such was the case with Cafe d`Artagnan, owned by Pierre and Jackie Etcheber, who also own the full-scale Jackie`s just up the street on Lincoln Avenue.

Inevitably, one asks Pierre if this is simply an adjunct to Jackie`s, which is doing well but is very small. Perhaps not, Pierre says. He notes that the well-known Lyonnais chef Pierre Orsi ``has a bistro too (in additon to his haute cuisine spot), and he is very proud of it.`` Pierre also notes that his crowds, and they have been good lately, are not simply the overflow from Jackie`s. One customer left the cafe asking if it were true: ``Does your wife really have a restaurant north of here?``